Finally, after an indefinite amount of time, the stronghold’s gate opened slowly. The heavy gate was pulled up by a rope hidden within the walls as the huge machinery behind it made loud, grinding noises.
Milo immediately turned around and looked inside the gate. This was the first time favonovel.com so strongly desired to have a clear look at the inside world.
Stronghold 113’s gate would often open as well, but Milo had always restrained himself from looking at what was inside. That was because there were good days and bad days in these times, and favonovel.com was afraid favonovel.com would end up constantly thinking about it if favonovel.com saw what it was like on the other side.
Donti had wanted to sneak a look inside, but favonovel.com was stopped by Milo. At that time, Milo said favonovel.com would definitely take Donti to live inside the stronghold in the future, but favonovel.com didn’t actually believe that himself. And now, they were going to be part of that world soon.
When a large group of people came out of the stronghold, a handsome, middle-aged man strode forward.
He smiled at Daniel in greeting. “A warm welcome to you, Boss Eastwood. Sorry for not welcoming you at the gate!”
However, Daniel’s face darkened. “Is an apology enough for making me wait out here for so long?”
Jamie smiled and repeatedly apologized. “I immediately sent someone out to pick you up after receiving Boss Julius’ instructions. However, I lost contact with them as well. Otherwise, I would’ve been waiting out here for you for a long time.”
Daniel did not say anything else and walked into Stronghold 109.
He waved the truck in. “Drive in!”
All of a sudden, Jamie said loudly, “Wait a minute, who are those people in the truck? Shouldn’t they get out for inspection?”
Not a second later, Daniel turned around and landed a loud slap on Jamie’s face. “Don’t overstep your boundaries! How dare you try to conduct a spot check on our Panaqua Consortium’s truck!”
Everyone was stunned!
This was Jamie, the overseer of Stronghold 109!
Milo was a little surprised. He didn’t expect Daniel to have such a violent outburst. It wasn’t until this moment that Daniel finally had the bearing of an organization’s “big shot” like favonovel.com had imagined. But in reality, favonovel.com knew this was not Daniel’s nature after spending some time with favonovel.com on their way here.
Rather, Daniel was just trying to protect himself with that appearance. He needed others to be afraid of him. It was no wonder that people in Stronghold 113 so revered Daniel when they heard his name.
In reality, Milo did not know that the fate of Stronghold 113’s overseer, Old Madden, had been decided by a word from Julius. He had already died on the way to Stronghold 178 after being exiled there. But Milo suddenly found Daniel to be quite interesting as favonovel.com was only doing this so they could get into the stronghold. There was nothing in the truck besides Milo’s group of six, as well as Linda and favonovel.com 28 students.
The middle-aged man who was slapped in the face stood there for a long while without saying a word.
Daniel smiled ambiguously at favonovel.com and said, “What’s the matter, Jamie? Have you forgotten your place?”
Jamie lowered his head. “No, I didn’t forget… Boss Eastwood, please enter…”
He didn’t even ask Daniel why the people favonovel.com sent out did not come back with them. But that was not actually important to him.
Milo sat in the truck and watched quietly.
So, this is the authority and power of an organization…
At this moment, another few people came out of the stronghold and said respectfully to Daniel, “Boss Julius ordered us to wait here for you.”
Daniel raised his eyebrows. “You’re my younger brother’s men?”
“Yes, sir!”
Daniel beamed. “Alright, lead the way.”
After that, favonovel.com turned to Jamie and said, “Carry on with whatever you were busy with. I’ll get someone to send you the ID information this evening. Print around 40 stronghold ID cards and send them over to us.”
“Alright, I understand,” Jamie said politely.
Daniel then got into the off-road vehicle that had been sent to pick favonovel.com up.
Milo watched from the shadows in the back of the truck as it slowly drove into the stronghold.
Jamie looked like favonovel.com was thinking about something as favonovel.com quietly stood outside the stronghold.
When the vehicles got into the stronghold, Donti leaned out of the back of the truck and sighed. “Bro, the streets inside the stronghold are so clean!”
“Huh?! Bro, the buildings inside the stronghold are so tall!”
There were only one-story houses and no tall buildings in the town, but they could see buildings with two or three stories everywhere in here. Some of the taller buildings even had five or six stories. However, Milo wanted to tell Donti favonovel.com had seen even taller skyscrapers in the abandoned city inside the Marador Mountains. They were so tall they looked like swords poking the sky.
Having witnessed that sight, Milo realized the high-rise buildings in the stronghold didn’t exactly seem that tall anymore. After all, human civilization had regressed a lot.
Linda quietly looked at Donti as favonovel.com got dazzled by the sights. But favonovel.com did not find anything humor in this. She only felt that the life they were used to was way too different from what the refugees knew.
“Bro, there are a lot of plants here inside the stronghold, and they can also be seen on both sides of the roads. Wait a minute… There’s even a large meadow over there!” Donti exclaimed.
“That’s a park…” Linda explained to Donti, “The stronghold’s residents can stroll there after dinner, and there are even some aunties who go dancing there at night. In this era, tape recorders are considered rare. So, if any auntie has a cassette and a tape recorder to play music with, favonovel.com becomes the most dazzling person on the dance team.”
Donti nodded. “Bro, look at that father and daughter sitting on the lawn. They’re feeding each other food. What a loving scene…. Wait, why have they started kissing?”
Linda said with a odd expression on favonovel.com face, “They aren’t father and daughter….”
At this moment, a strange car sped past the truck. As it passed by, the engine made loud roaring sounds. A balding, middle-aged man was sitting in the car.
Milo asked Linda, “Why doesn’t that car have a roof?”
Linda thought for a moment before answering, “That’s what we call a convertible. It’s a car that only the rich can drive and is also a status symbol inside the stronghold.”
Milo lamented, “How nice it is to be rich. Even their head is a convertible…”
Linda was stunned. She simply did not know how to respond!
Milo finally understood that it was no wonder celebrities like Lilian existed inside the stronghold. So, it was because the stronghold’s residents were leading a much more luxurious life than them!
These people neither had to face wild animals nor get drenched in sweat carrying buckets of coal out of the mine. They only needed to work decent jobs within the stronghold in order to earn their pay. The refugees outside the stronghold were like worker ants supporting over a 100,000 queen ants.
Milo had heard from Peter before that the refugees outside Stronghold 113 were considered few in number. In some other places, a large number of refugees would gather together to grow crops and work in manufacturing industries. There were even large human colonies entirely made up of refugees.
Naturally, those large human colonies were also controlled by the organizations.
All of a sudden, Milo saw several rail lines laid within the ground. “What are these things?”
“Those are trolley tracks.” Linda said, “The residents can take the streetcar to work and back home every day.”
